Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu released the 2016-17 local government audit outcome report in Parliament on Wednesday morning. Municipal officials from Makwetu’s office have received many threats from municipal affiliates during the gathering of financial expenditure information.

Due to significant effort in 2016-17 some municipalities have transparently reported on irregular expenditure incurred in the previous years, R15 billion of the total irregular expenditure was identified and reported in 2016-17.

The new local government administration has incurred the remaining R13 billion of expenditure in 2016-17, which represented 4% of the local government expenditure budget.

Briefly.co.za learned from reports by City Press that Makwetu said, "There has been no significant positive change towards credible results; instead we are witnessing a reversal in audit outcomes.”

5 things to know about the local government audit

During the 2016 period some of the municipalities decreased in numbers due to amalgamation when 37 municipalities closed down and 16 new offices opened.

Eastern Cape was the leading province to incur irregular expenditure amounting to R13.6 billion in 2016-17 compared with R5.4 billion in the 2015-16 financial year.

Some of these municipalities were in shambles and in danger of not being able to deliver services. It has been identified that interventions were required at all 18 municipalities in the Free State, ten in Eastern Cape, 14 in Northern Cape, 13 in North West, 12 in KwaZulu-Natal, five in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, four in Gauteng and two in Western Cape.

Amendment of the Auditor-General Act this week now allows Makwetu to report irregular expenditure to the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies for investigation